Week 9: Model citizens in a developmentalist socialist state
DVST 6901: The global politics of development (Semester 2,
2026)
October 5, 2026
Modernist development is an ideology and a paradigm, but also a language, specifically a creole language that agents and subjects of the state both use. People often misunderestimate each other even when they use the same language of modernization, development, and change.
Main reading: High (2021), intro. and chaps. 3-4
Notes
Notes to be added later.
Keywords
desire, working misunderstanding
Learning outcomes
- Understand the experience of state-led development from the ground up
- Identify examples of misrecognition and misunderstanding among clients, practititioners, and experts in development practice
References
High, Holly. 2021. Projectland: Life in a Lao Socialist Model
Village. Honolulu: University of Hawaiʻi Press.